Using data from a large southwestern school district, Bui, Craig, and Imberman investigated the effects of gifted and talented programming on middle school students' achievement and behavior (attendance and discipline) through two avenues. Using a regression discontinuity design for the first set of analyses, the authors took advantage of a…

This article presents an interview with Sheila Kahrs, principal of Haymon-Morris Middle School in Winder, Georgia, and the 2010 MetLife/NASSP National Middle Level Principal of the Year. Haymon-Morris Middle School has 815 in enrollment, 50 teachers, and 33 staff members. She talks about her leadership philosophy with her teachers and assistant…

Predicated on the belief that current methods for assessing literacy give policymakers too narrow a view of performance and should be augmented by the informed professional judgment of classroom teachers, this report appraises how well schools in the United States are meeting the goal of a literate populace. The report seeks to improve…

A teacher recounts her experiences in adapting the concept of Academic Learning Time (ALT), developed in the Beginning Teacher Evaluation Study, to sixth-grade classes whose students formerly had been instructed individually. ALT was introduced into reading and mathematics instruction. Its effects on student motivation and achievement are…

The first part of this document presents the results of a survey of early entrance testing procedures in 25 Florida districts and details teacher ratings of 486 first-grade and 154 kindergarten students whose entrance test results had permitted them to enter kindergarten a year earlier than other students with birthdays between October and…